Friday, April 28, 2017

Points of Concurrency Activity

In the past when we have studied points of concurrency in Honors Geometry, I have had my students construct these points with the basic construction tools: a compass and straight edge.  Many of my students run into issues with the compass and several other students don't bring the required materials with them to class.  This year, I had my students use the app "Geometry: Constructions Tutor (Lite)"  to construct an incenter, circumcenter and an orthocenter.  By using this app, students were able to construct accurate diagrams of each of these points of concurrency.  Additionally, they were able to focus more on the activity and got more out of it, rather than just worrying about whether or not they could draw a "perfect arc".

For our "centroid", I had my students construct this on a piece of cardboard.  This point of concurrency is the "balance point" of a triangle.  Students used a ruler to measure to draw in the three medians of their triangle.  They then were able to balance the triangle on the tip of a pencil.

Overall, students really enjoyed this activity and were more engaged than during the previous more "traditional" process that involved a compass and straight edge.



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